The present invention generally relates to three-dimensional (3D) displays, and more particularly relates to a method of providing a 3D display to a viewer.
Presentation of a 3D image to a viewer is achieved using a technique known as “stereoscopy,” in which two offset images are separately displayed to the right and left eye of a viewer. When the viewer's brain combines those images, the user perceives the otherwise two-dimensional (2D) images as being 3D. With the recent rise in popularity of 3D films and video games, technological advances have been made in stereoscopy.
With recent 3D televisions, “active shutter” glasses have been used to achieve a 3D effect. Active shutter glasses include two lenses, each having a liquid crystal layer that can be controlled to be dark (and prevent image viewing) or be transparent (and facilitate image viewing). The glasses are synchronized with an electronic display (e.g. a television) to rapidly alternate which of the lenses if darkened at any given time, which achieves the desired effect of each eye seeing only the image intended for it.
“Autostereoscopy” refers to the display of stereoscopic images without the use of special headgear or glasses on the part of the viewer. A popular form of autostereoscopic display utilizes a parallax barrier that includes a plurality of spaced apart columns arranged to block a given eye from seeing an image portion meant for the opposite eye. This carefully arranged blocking enables two separate images to be displayed to the right and left eyes simultaneously.
However, only a portion of a video frame or image is typically displayed in 3D at any given time, with the remaining portion being presented in 2D. Thus, for the non-3D image areas, essentially the same image is being separately shown to a viewer's right and left eyes simultaneously.